The SCMA Meeting on May 10th will feature a very special guest speaker. Retired Chief Scott Edson, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, will speak on the following:

An introduction to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD);

The current analog LASD Communications System;

Public Safety Answering Points and Next Generation 911;

The new digital Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS);

Scott’s biography:

Chief Scott Edson retired in March, 2017, with over 39 years of law enforcement experience with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD). His immediate past assignment was as the Division Chief of Special Operations Division which included Counterterrorism, the SWAT Team, Air Operations, Crime Analysis and Intelligence, Street Gang Investigations, Emergency Management, Crisis Negotiations, Arson and Explosives, and Mental Evaluation Teams. His prior assignments included communications, technology, investigations, patrol and custody.

Chief Edson is a nationally recognized leader in the area of Information Sharing, Homeland Security, Communications and Technology. He participates on many Federal, State and Local committees and working groups, and is an active member of many associations, including Chair of the International Public Safety Association, Board of Directors. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Technology Management and an Associate of Arts degree in Administration of Justice.

Chief Edson is also an Amateur Radio Operator and was licensed in 1991 so he could literally hang out of helicopters holding a video camera connected to a packet radio system! He transmitted live a bird’s eye view of an incident back to a command post so the incident commander could make educated decisions based on what he saw on the real time video feed. His call sign is W6EDS (www.W6EDS.us)

Chief Edson was not retired long! After only one day of retirement he started his new career as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System, also known as, LA-RICS. LA-RICS is a half a billion dollar public safety voice and data communications system for the 34,000 first and secondary responders in the county. Details on LA-RICS can be found at www.LA-RICS.org

We think you will find Scott’s information very interesting and I encourage you to come to the meeting if at all possible.

Ford Motor Co. has unveiled the world’s first “pursuit-rated” hybrid police car and the Los Angeles Police Department may be among the first agencies to have one.

Chief Charlie Beck and LAPD officers were expected to help introduce the vehicle at a Monday morning ceremony in Los Angeles.

The Ford Police Responder Hybrid Sedan started life as a Ford Fusion before engineers gave it the law enforcement treatment by upgrading the suspension, beefing up the brakes, adding different wheels and tires, attaching a skid plate and altering the seats so they have room for police utility belts and include an “anti-stab” plate to protect officers from sharp instruments coming from the back seat.

It won its world-first “pursuit-rated” stripes in testing by Michigan State Police and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, Ford said in announcing the new vehicle.

The Responder is driven by Ford’s 2.0-liter, four-cylinder gasoline engine mated to an electric motor powered by a 1.4-kilowatt lithium ion battery. That powertrain, Ford said, will get an EPA-estimated 38 miles per gallon — more than twice the fuel economy in Ford’s current police vehicle, the Interceptor.

Ford hasn’t published specifications on the new vehicle yet, but Arie Groeneveld, of the company’s police programs department, said the Responder will accelerate from zero to 60 mph at about the same rate as the Crown Victoria-based Interceptor police vehicle.

That car scored well in 2016 law enforcement testing. In one test, the Interceptor went zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds, ahead of Dodge’s Charger police vehicle’s 6.6 seconds and Chevrolet’s police Caprice, at 6.7 seconds.

Pricing has not been announced, but hybrid vehicles typically cost more than their internal combustion engine counterparts. Ford executives said fuel savings should pay for the higher cost within one year.

Ford expects the Responder to do well.

“Cities have been asking us for solutions to reduce carbon emissions and costs, and agencies have been asking for greener police cars and greener pursuit vehicles,” said Kevin Koswick, director of Ford’s lease and remarking operations in North America. “We saw a need and we thought we could fulfill it.”

The Responder will go into production early next year. LAPD units could be driving them by late 2018.

Police representatives would not say, prior to the Monday morning event, to what degree the department will invest in the hybrid vehicles.

But Public Information Director Josh Rubenstein said the LAPD is committed to purchasing 300 hybrid and hybrid electric plug-in vehicles by 2020, and to build charging stations and infrastructure to support them.

The department is also committed to deploying battery electric vehicles in certain divisions within the next five years, Rubenstein said.

Ford has done well with police vehicles. For years, many departments relied upon the Crown Victoria for law enforcement duties. Today, Ford claims 63% of the U.S. police patrol pie and says it sells about 32,000 Interceptors a year.

The Responder is part of Ford’s earlier-announced plan to invest $4.5 billion in automobile electrification over the next five years.

Among the 13 new vehicles scheduled to emerge from that program are a hybrid Mustang, a hybrid F-150 pickup truck and a 300-mile-range battery electric vehicle.

Dispatcher Heather Champlin takes calls at a 911 dispatch station at Anaheim PD. Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC

The woman’s screams were terrifying.

The anguished wails were all that Anaheim PD Dispatcher Heather Champlin heard when she took the 911 call.

Hamplin wondered if the woman had been violently attacked.

Since she had called from a landline, the caller’s address popped up on Champlin’s screen.

After several seconds that seemed to stretch into minutes, Champlin finally was able to get the caller to tell her what was wrong.

“There’s a rat in my house!”

Police dispatchers pretty much have heard it all.

With April 9th, marking the start of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, which runs through April 15, Behind the Badge met with APD dispatchers and their managers about a profession that obviously is critical to law enforcement, but often misunderstood by the general public.

Stories?

Dispatchers have tons of them, from the funny — like the rat-phobic woman, or the 911 calls that come every Thanksgiving about how to cook a turkey — to the heartbreakingly tragic.

And dispatchers often are at the receiving end of streams of profanity-laden invective, such as when callers from around the country recently flooded APD phone lines to criticize an off-duty LAPD officer who fired his gun during a confrontation with a group of teenagers in his front yard.

Through it all, police dispatchers are tasked with remaining calm, cool and courteous.

“Dispatchers are the unsung heroes (of the police department),” said Kurt Wallace, Communications Manager, Support Services Division, APD. “They are the ‘first first responders,’ and the calming voice in the storm.”

Added Wallace, who started at the APD as a dispatcher in 1997 and has managed the unit since January 2009: “It’s a very difficult job, but it’s rewarding in that we truly make a difference.”

Dispatcher Lesley DiBenedetto works on one of the 911 dispatch stations at the Anaheim PD. Photo by Steven Georges/Behind the Badge OC

During National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, patrol officers typically visit dispatchers to tell them how much they’re appreciated.

Their bosses set up taco and breakfast bars, and during the week dispatchers are allowed to wear civilian clothes to work instead of their dark-blue wool uniforms.

For these seven days, APD dispatchers will take all the love they can get.

“To me, having been a deputy and then coming here, this job is harder,” said Rick Johnson, a dispatcher at the APD for 10 years. Johnson previously was a deputy for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. An injury forced him to medically retire after seven years.

“As a deputy, you’re on one call at a time, and usually you are on it for a while,” Johnson said. “As a dispatcher, you have to know what’s going on with everything.”

Indeed, multitasking is a requirement.

Every few hours during their 12-hour shifts, dispatchers rotate from being call takers — answering all 911 as well as non-emergency calls — to working the radios, when they send patrol officers out on calls and answer their questions.

If a call starts to go south, with a caller berating a dispatcher or the conversation getting heated, supervisors will take over the call.

Many callers don’t understand why dispatchers ask so many questions, but that’s their job: to find out where the caller is and what their emergency is.

“People get angry that we ask so many questions,” Champlin says.

She recalls asking a caller for a description of a suspect.

“He’s about my height,” the caller responded.

No help.

Also typical are callers, when asked where they are, simple say, “I’m in Anaheim.”

The unit currently is understaffed, said Wallace, who oversees five communications supervisors, four senior dispatchers and 26 full-time dispatchers. There currently are five dispatcher openings. The APD will fill them in a couple of weeks, Wallace said, but it will take a year for each of them to become fully trained.

Also, the nature of the job is changing.

A couple of decades ago, dispatchers sent officers on calls, and that was pretty much that.

These days, said Wallace, members of the public increasingly call dispatchers to complain about such social issues as homeless encampments. And dispatchers increasingly assist officers in the field by doing basic background checks on suspects for warrants and other issues.

“Just as police officers increasingly are being pulled in different directions,” Wallace said, “so are dispatchers.”

There is a nationwide push, he said, for the job of dispatcher to be reclassified from a clerical position to a public safety position, which could have ramifications for retirement and other benefits.

Another challenge: The advent of cell phones has translated to an increased volume of 911 calls, with about 75 percent of all 911 calls in Anaheim now coming from cell phones.

APD dispatchers, who work 12½-hour shifts with a one-hour break, now process about 600,000 calls a year. About 180,000 to 190,000 of these are 911 calls. Of the 911 calls, maybe 25 percent are true emergencies.

Beginning in around 2006, the APD started experiencing a marked increase in 911 calls, Wallace said.

In 1997, the agency’s dispatchers processed 128,530 911 calls. Last year, APD dispatchers processed 150,581 911 calls, which is on the low end when compared to 190,000-plus in 2012.

It used to be that all 911 calls made from cell phone went directly to the California Highway Patrol. Some still do, of course, but beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such calls went to agencies located near where the calls were coming from.

The nature of 911 calls from cell phones is evolving, which will require further training for dispatchers, Wallace said. The APD is in the process of working with other 911 centers in O.C. to figure out a uniform system of dealing with 911 texting, which is about a year away, and the ability of people to text pictures and videos to 911, which is still a few years away.

“Those will be the next evolutions of 911 calls,” Wallace said.

Regarding cell phones, the public seems to believe that if they make a 911 call on their cell phone, dispatchers know exactly where they are.

Not so, Wallace said.

On newer cell phones, 911 calls yield between 90 and 95 percent accuracy within 10 meters, he said. This gives dispatchers a very good idea of where the call is coming from, but in a large setting like a college campus or an apartment complex, more information is needed to get officers to where they need to go.

John Carter, an APD dispatch supervisor, said quality-assurance checks are routinely done to make sure dispatchers are providing the best service possible.

He says the job can wear on dispatchers, who deal with the worst moments of people’s lives constantly throughout a shift.

“You can get desensitized to all the bad stuff that happens,” Carter said. “When I get home, I don’t watch the news. Dispatchers experience a lot of the ugliness in the world. It’s important to have a healthy outlet.”

Added Johnson: “You need a high level of emotional intelligence not to take things personally.”

In a first for a law enforcement agency in Southern California, the Tustin PD is in the process of training its officers to use a pursuit-mitigation device called StarChase, in which an officer fires a GPS tag from a launcher mounted on the grill of the patrol car to track a fleeing suspect, avoiding the need to pursue the vehicle.

The point is to reduce the risks involved in pursuits and improve safety for officers, suspects and the general public.

The TPD recently showed several field training officers (FTOs) how to use StarChase (starchase.com). They practiced deploying the GPS tags by pushing a button on their dashboard consoles while in pursuit of the suspect’s vehicle. The training also included classroom instruction.

Over the next month, the TPD will be training all its officers on the technology. TPD patrol vehicles will be equipped with StarChase.

Lt. Brian Greene has overseen this project from its inception. “This gives us another tool to manage dangerous situations,” Greene said.

Police agencies in the Northern California and Northern Washington already use StarChase, said Dave Respess, director of field operations and training at StarChase LLC.

The Tustin PD started looking into the technology about a year ago. There are fewer than 100 law enforcement agencies nationwide using StarChase, Respess said.

“Chief (Charlie) Celano is very big on technology and in using technology to make our agency operate more efficiently and effectively,” Greene said.

Here’s how StarChase works:

A launcher mounted on the front of a patrol car uses a laser to target a fleeing car. The launcher uses compressed air to deploy a cylinder whose end is covered in an adhesive containing a GPS locator and a transmitter.

Once the GPS cylinder is attached to a fleeing car, dispatchers and fellow TPD patrol officers can track the location and movement of the fleeing car on a secure web-based mapping portal.

This means officers can rely on additional tactical strategies other than chasing a suspect, often at dangerously high speeds, to apprehend the suspect.

“I love it,” TPD Sgt. Andy Birozy said of StarChase. He and Sgt. Mike Van Cleve, under the supervision of Greene, are overseeing the rollout of StarChase at the TPD. “I think it’s a great idea,” Birozy added. “I think it could save officers’ lives and the lives of the general public.”

The TPD engages in an average of about 10 vehicle pursuits a year, Birozy said.

Every police vehicle pursuit does have an element of danger and the Tustin PD has existing policies and procedures in place for the officers regarding involvement in pursuits. Those policies and procedures are designed to help mitigate risks involving pursuits, and now StarChase will be one of those available options.

During the recent TPD training session, Greene noticed the excitement on the faces of the officers who participated.

“To see the smiles on their faces,” Greene said, “to give them the tools they need to do their jobs safer, that’s what it’s all about.”

Verizon IndyCar Series drivers are used to sharing race feedback with their team engineers, but Wednesday they worked together with the Los Angeles Police Department to discuss police pursuits and driving techniques.

Indianapolis 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay and four-time Verizon IndyCar Series race winner James Hinchcliffe visited the LAPD’s Davis Training Facility, where officers and recruits receive instruction that prepares them for careers in the field. The drivers were in town for this weekend’s Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, which takes place Friday through Sunday.

The 44-acre facility completed in 1999 trains police officers for the difficult task of conducting pursuits and responding to calls in a safe and timely manner. It consists of a road course that includes a light controlled intersection, two skid courses, an area for high-speed reverse driving, a collision avoidance simulator and law enforcement driving simulators.

“It was a unique and very worthwhile experience to have such talented drivers here at our facility to share their knowledge and experience,” said Officer Alex Penrith, who gave the driving instruction. “Once they understood our mission, they were able to share ideas on staying focused behind the wheel, controlling stress and not overdriving.”

Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay received basic instruction on the intricacies of police driver training. Though the drivers hold a combined 20 Verizon IndyCar Series race wins, preparing for a police pursuit was not their typical day at the track.

“Their experience and maturity was very obvious from the first turn,” Penrith continued. “They were very quickly able to adapt to our police vehicles and safely operate them at speed. A pursuit is complicated and takes a great deal of training to get right. If the racing thing doesn’t work out, we would gladly accept their applications.”

Through the hands-on experience, Hinchcliffe and Hunter-Reay received a close-up perspective of the challenges officers face in their line of work. Law enforcement officials often find themselves in situations where they have to make smart decisions quickly, just as Verizon IndyCar Series drivers do on the racetrack.

“There’s a lot of similarities here,” said Hunter-Reay, the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indy 500 winner. “With the high-stakes environment in the Verizon IndyCar Series, the consequences that go with driving on the edge – the police officers here at the LAPD, the split-second decisions that they have to make are life and death — it’s similar to ours in that way, but they have so many more variables. They have traffic, they have pedestrians and keeping your cool and not getting the red mist, or low eyes as we call it, is key for them.”

Hinchcliffe, who lived in Los Angeles for several months last year while competing and finishing runner-up on Season 23 of “Dancing with the Stars,” gained an even deeper respect for the officers through the experience.

“We got a huge insight into what actually goes into their training and what goes into the job of being in pursuit of a suspect,” Hinchcliffe said. “It’s not just flat out on the gas and chasing a guy, there’s a lot of things they have to go through in the heat of the moment.”

The drivers also tested out shooting and driving simulators, which the officers use to simulate real-life situations that also teach quick, smart decision-making.

At the end of the event, Hunter-Reay and Hinchcliffe presented the officers with a commemorative milk bottle signifying the lead-up to the 101st Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil next month, where the race winner celebrates by drinking a bottle of milk in Victory Circle.

This fiscal year Marines will receive smart phones that make calling for fire support easier, quicker and more accurate.

The Target Handoff System Version 2 is a portable system designed for use by dismounted Marines to locate targets, pinpoint global positioning coordinates and call for close air, artillery and naval fire support using secure digital communications. The system is an upgrade to the Corps’ current Target Handoff System and is made up of a laser range finder, video down link receiver and a combat net radio.

“Our current THS, though capable, needed to be smaller and lighter to better support dismounted operations,” said Capt. Jesse Hume, THS V.2 project officer for Marine Corps Systems Command. “With the new version, Marines will obtain a lightweight device equipped to provide immediate situational awareness on where friendly and enemy locations are, and the ability to hand off target data to fire support to get quick effects on the battlefield.”

THS V.2 uses commercial off-the-shelf smartphones that reduce the system’s total weight from roughly 20 to 10 pounds, making it easier to transport. It also features new, more intuitive software. Information is transmitted via an encrypted combat net radio, ensuring mission security.

Matthew Bolen, assistant engineer for THS, said the use of COTS products eliminates the cost of investing in proprietary hardware and decreases the time it takes to equip the Corps with new technology.

“With the new commercial products, THS V.2 will be half the price of the previous system, while incorporating the speed of current advancements in handheld technology and encryption,” he said.

Designed for use by forward observers, air controllers and joint terminal attack controllers, THS V.2 allows users to quickly and accurately determine a target’s location and digitally transmit (hand-off) the data to supporting arms elements. The system automatically generates coordinates for targets identified by a Marine and digitizes the information into a map application pre-installed on the smartphone, eliminating the need for manual input. Once digitized, the information is transmitted to the Fire Support Coordination Center, where the proper approach of attack is determined. The FSCC then coordinates air, artillery or naval fire support to extinguish the threat.

“THS V.2 provides embedded, real-time tactical information with ground combat element units down to the squad or platoon level,” said Gunnery Sgt. Nicholas Tock, THS operations chief. “If we are on patrol and we take contact from machine guns in a tree line, a satellite that passes over once every few hours is not going to help an infantry unit kill that target. THS V.2 is for that close combat.”

The system’s upgraded software includes a new, easy-to-understand interface similar to operating systems used by everyday mobile users. THS V.2 will also come with a pre-installed “Start Guide” help app with step-by-step tutorials ranging from configuration to trouble shooting operations.

“Start Guide is an intuitive app that goes through setup procedures, troubleshooting procedures and many other quick-reference materials,” said Chuck Schuster, MCSC’s liaison to the Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center. “This is the first time to our knowledge that a feature like this has been pre-installed on a system for Marines.”

THS V.2 is part of the MCSC’s joint fires and combined arms arsenal. Joint fires describe the use of weapon systems in a joint environment involving forces from two or more components in coordinated action in support of a common objective.

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an incident in which a passenger aircraft was given wrong directions by traffic controllers and guided toward the San Gabriel Mountains, where it flew just hundreds of feet higher than the peak of Mt. Wilson before turning around, according to publicly available flight data.

Bound for Taiwan, the EVA Air Boeing 777 took off to the east early Friday from Los Angeles International Airport’s south runway complex, according to FAA spokesman Ian Gregor. After takeoff, the air crew switched from the LAX control tower to the approach control operations in San Diego, which Gregor said was common practice.

“The air traffic controller at the approach control who was handling EVA instructed the pilot to make a left turn to a 180-degree heading,” he said. “She meant to tell the pilot to make a right turn to a 180-degree heading.”

Following the controller’s instructions, the pilot turned left.

The move sent the plane in the wrong direction, Gregor said.

Instead of flying south, the aircraft flew north toward the San Gabriel Mountains and an Air Canada jet that had departed from the north runway complex at LAX.

When the controller realized the mistake, she “took immediate action to keep EVA safely separated” from the second aircraft as well as ground terrain, Gregor said. She issued the EVA pilot a series of instructions to help him turn south.

“The controller wanted to make sure the EVA aircraft was safely above or away from nearby terrain,” he said.

The conversation between the pilot of EVA 015 and the controller was posted by VASAviation on Youtube. At one point during the flight, the controller asks the pilot, “What are you doing? Turn southbound now.”

A graphic depiction of the aircraft’s flight path, altitude and speed on the website Flightradar24.com shows the plane turning north and flying over Pasadena toward the San Gabriel Mountains. Just five minutes after takeoff, the plane is hovering 5,000 feet over Eaton Canyon when it begins turning away from the mountain range and heading south.

As the aircraft banks directly to the south of Mt. Wilson, it continues to gain altitude and appears to fly between 500 and 800 feet higher than the Mt. Wilson Observatory, which stands roughly 5,710 feet high, according to the website data. The aircraft’s lateral distance from the mountain peak appears to be between 500 and 600 meters.

In a statement issued Tuesday, EVA Air said, “our flight was never too close to other aircraft or to the mountains.”

The pilot of the aircraft was directed to take off from Runway 7 and complied with the air traffic controller’s direction and speed instructions.

“EVA is working in full cooperation with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and related authorities in the investigation of this situation,” the statement said.

FAA regulations require that airliners be separated by at least 3 miles laterally, or 1,000 feet vertically. The regulations also require airliners to be at least 3 miles away laterally or 2,000 feet vertically above obstacles such as mountains.

Asked whether the aircraft had violated those restrictions, Gregor said the FAA was looking into how high the aircraft was flying above the ground northeast of the airport.

“The question is how close did they come to the terrain,” said Jon Russell, an air transport pilot and the Western-Pacific regional safety coordinator for the Air Line Pilots Assn. “Did a terrain warning sound in the cockpit?”

FAA officials said they did not know Tuesday afternoon whether such a warning occurred.

The flight had 353 people on board, including five infants, an airline spokeswoman said.

Uniden is pleased to announce the addition of support for Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) and EDACS ProVoice decoding for two additional more models, further cementing Unidens position as the leading scanner manufacturer worldwide.

Digital Mobile Radio is used on thousands of systems worldwide. This $60 paid upgrade allows existing and future owners of the BCD996P2 and BCD325P2 scanners to easily add support for monitoring DMR, MotoTRBO Connect Plus, MotoTRBO Capacity Plus, and DMR Tier 3 systems.

ProVoice systems are used by several major agencies in the United States. This $50 paid upgrade allows people who live in one of these areas to easily add support for monitoring all unencrypted comms on these systems.

Uniden has led the way by adding the ability to use new digital modes in our scanners, without forcing all customers to incur the cost of support for systems that they have no need for. Our “a la carte” business model lets you pay for what you use and allows us to fairly compensate our technology licensors when one of our customers decides to use their technology. Using the Uniden BCDxxxP2 radios, upgraded with the DMR and ProVoice upgrades, you can now seamlessly monitor unencrypted channels on the following system types:

Conventional Analog channels

Conventional P25 Digital channels

Motorola Type I and Type II Trunked Radio systems with Analog and Digital (P25) Voice